Earlier this year, PAN label head Bill Kouligas announced that he was teaming up with Louis Carnell — aka Visionist — to reboot the latter's Lost Codes imprint under the slightly streamlined Codes moniker, with a collaborative EP from producers Acre and Filter Dread heading up the launch. It's no surprise, then, that the debut Visionist LP should arrive courtesy of the mother label itself.
Carnell's tweaked out R&B vocal samples, chilly synth melodies and sporadic drum patterns are pure PAN fodder, even as the imprint stretches even further into the weirder corners of the electronic music landscape. That's not to say that Safe is an overtly outré and unlistenable smattering of ironic noise — far from it. There is a fragile beauty that pervades every moment of music contained herein. Visionist's role as support act for FKA twigs' UK tour last fall should give potential listeners somewhat of a clue as to what to expect on his LP. His is an askew version of experimental electronic music that is as engaging a vision as it is singular.
